Movement segmentation and visual perturbation increase developmental differences in motor control and learning

Abstract

We examined the developmental differences in motor control and learning of a two‐segment movement. One hundred and five participants (53 female) were divided into three age groups (7–8 years, 9–10 years and 19–27 years). They performed a two‐segment movement task in four conditions (full vision, fully disturbed vision, disturbed vision in the first movement segment and disturbed vision in the second movement segment). The results for movement accuracy and overall movement time show that children, especially younger children, are more susceptible to visual perturbations than adults. The adults’ movement time in one of the movement segments could be increased by disturbing the vision of the other movement segment. The children's movement time for the second movement segment increased when their vision of the first movement segment was disturbed. Disturbing the vision of the first movement segment decreased the percentage of central control of the second movement in younger children, but not in the other two age groups. The children's normalized jerk was more easily increased by visual perturbations. The children showed greater improvement after practice in the conditions of partial vision disturbance. As the participants’ age increased, practice tended to improve their feedforward motor control rather than their feedback motor control. These results suggest that children's central movement control improves with age and practice. We discuss the theoretical implications and practical significance of the differential effects of visual perturbation and movement segmentation upon motor control and learning from a developmental viewpoint.

Dynamic knee valgus in competitive alpine skiers: Observation from youth to elite and influence of biological maturation

“…Generally, our results are in contrast to the widespread assumption that motor control generally improves with age and practice toward adulthood. 36 In fact, our data further support the assumption that particularly in phases of rapid skeletal growth (ie, around APHV), neuromuscular adaptation processes may be decelerated 37 and thus may be the reason for the increasing MKD values of both sexes with proceeding maturation (ie, larger maturity offset). Future studies, however, should investigate the relation between dynamic knee valgus and biological maturation in more detail and from a mechanistic perspective.…”

Biological Maturation Predicts Dynamic Balance and Lower Limb Power in Young Football Players

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